Injury Notes: Sixers, Gordon, Powell, Richards, Bronny
Joel Embiid (left knee injury management and personal reasons) will miss a fourth straight game on Saturday when the Sixers face the Pistons in Detroit, while Kyle Lowry (right hip strain) will sit out for a fifth in a row, according to Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
The good news for the 76ers is that Paul George, who has been out since November 20 due to a left knee bone bruise, has been upgraded to questionable and appears on track to be a game-time decision.
“We did do a good amount of contact and playing as well, so it was good to see,” head coach Nick Nurse said after George participated in Friday’s practice. “He looked pretty good out there.”
As for the status of Embiid’s knee? “The swelling’s gone down a bit,” Nurse said. “Still some soreness there. That’s about all I can say.”
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon participated in Saturday’s practice and is nearing a return, head coach Michael Malone said today (Twitter link via Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette). Gordon has been on the shelf for Denver’s past 10 games as he recovers from a right calf strain. His return will be a boon for the Nuggets, who have a +10.3 net rating in Gordon’s 212 minutes on the court this season.
- Clippers swingman Norman Powell has missed the team’s past six games due to a left hamstring issue but is expected to return for the four-game homestand that begins on Sunday vs. Denver, writes Janis Carr of The Orange County Register. Powell is the Clippers’ leading scorer so far this season with an average of 23.3 points per game.
- Hornets center Nick Richards will be available to play on Saturday against Atlanta for the first time since November 1 after recovering from a broken rib, tweets Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer. With Mark Williams unavailable so far this fall, Richards was Charlotte’s starting center prior to his injury.
- Lakers guard Bronny James, who hasn’t played in either the NBA or the G League since November 17 due to a left heel contusion, will begin his ramp-up process after team doctors determined in a Friday exam that the injury is healing, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. James will be reevaluated in one week.
Mavericks Notes: Marshall, Doncic, Klay, Gafford, Washington
It came as a bit of a surprise on the first day of free agency this past summer when the Mavericks – whose stated top priority was re-signing starting forward Derrick Jones – lost him to the Clippers and pivoted to signing Naji Marshall to fill Jones’ three-and-D role on the wing. But Marshall has played his role admirably in Dallas so far, as Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal (Substack link) writes.
Known mostly for his defense, Marshall didn’t average more than 9.1 points per game in any of his first four NBA seasons, but he’s up to 12.0 PPG on a career-best 55.4% shooting in his first 19 games as a Maverick, and he has been on fire as of late. In Dallas’ past four games, he has averaged 23.0 PPG on .633/.556/.667 shooting.
“Yeah, I think he’s taking full advantage of being able to get to the paint and use his floater, and he’s now shooting the three,” head coach Jason Kidd said in explaining Marshall’s recent offensive outburst. “And so just, you know, understanding who’s on the floor with him and creating where he doesn’t have to create a lot of space in the sense of his shot because of who’s on the floor. But his aggressiveness and ability to finish were at a high level.”
Marshall’s recent streak of four straight 20-point games came with Luka Doncic sidelined. Klay Thompson also missed the two most recent contests. When the Mavs are healthier, Marshall will likely take a step back offensively. But as Afseth writes, it’s an encouraging sign for Dallas that the defense-first forward is finding his three-point stroke during this stretch. Marshall has knocked down 10-of-19 outside shots since last Friday after making just 4-of-30 (13.3%) in his first 15 games this season.
Here’s more on the Mavs:
- Thompson (left foot plantar fascia) didn’t take part in Friday’s practice, but Doncic (right wrist sprain) and Daniel Gafford (illness) were participants, tweets Afseth. Thompson will miss a third straight game on Saturday when the Mavs visit Utah, while Doncic is still listed as doubtful. Gafford is off the injury report and should be active.
- Doncic may not return to action on Saturday, but he appears to be close to playing for the first time since November 19. Kidd said the Mavs star “looked good” in Friday’s practice, per ESPN. Saturday’s contest is the first in a back-to-back set, so if Doncic doesn’t suit up tonight, it’s possible he’ll be activated for Sunday’s game in Portland.
- Marshall isn’t the only Maverick who has stepped up his game with Doncic and Thompson out. Spencer Dinwiddie (back-to-back 20-point games), Quentin Grimes (21 points on Wednesday), and P.J. Washington (four straight double-doubles) have been standouts and have helped lead Dallas to a 4-1 record in games Doncic has missed. “We need guys like P.J. and Naji to maintain this level of aggressiveness when Luka comes back,” Kidd said, according to Afseth. “It’s not just about one or two players carrying the load—it’s about everyone knowing their role, being confident, and contributing. That’s what makes us dangerous. … Everything we’ve done without (Doncic) only makes us stronger when he’s back.”
- Kyrie Irving agreed that the Mavs’ successful stretch without Doncic should only benefit the team in the long run, per Afseth: “This gives our role players an opportunity to step up, take more shots, and learn in real time. When Luka comes back, we’ll be stronger because of it. I’d prefer for us to be 100% healthy, but since that’s not the case, we’re making the most of the situation. I’m staying present and appreciating the effort this team is giving. We know every night is a battle, and I’m proud of how we’ve competed.”
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Trade Rules For Non-Guaranteed Salaries
Under past NBA Collective Bargaining Agreements, up until the 2016/17 season, a player’s full cap hit was used for salary-matching purposes in trades, whether or not his salary was guaranteed. If a player had an $10MM salary with a partial guarantee of $1MM, his outgoing salary in a trade was the same as it would have been for a player who had a fully guaranteed $10MM contract.
That’s no longer the case, however. Now, only the guaranteed portion of a player’s contract counts for outgoing salary purposes in a trade, limiting the appeal of non-guaranteed salaries as trade chips.
This detail is crucial for determining how much salary a team can acquire in a trade — unless a team is under the cap, the amount of salary it sends out in a trade dictates how much salary it can take back. The amount of salary an over-the-cap team can acquire in a trade ranges from 100% to 200% of its outgoing salary, depending on exactly how much salary the team is sending out and the team’s proximity to a tax apron.
Under the old system, it might have made sense for a cap-strapped club to trade a player with a guaranteed salary for a player earning an equivalent non-guaranteed salary — the cap-strapped club could then waive that newly-acquired player to cut costs. That’s no longer a viable strategy.
Complicating matters further is the fact that a team can’t simply circumvent the new rules by trading a player before a league year ends on June 30, then having his new team waive him once his new non-guaranteed cap hit goes into effect on July 1. After the end of the regular season, a player’s outgoing salary for trade purposes is the lesser of his current-year salary and the guaranteed portion of his salary for the following season.
Here’s a practical example: During the 2024 offseason, the Warriors explored trade scenarios involving Chris Paul, who made $30.8MM in 2023/24 and had a non-guaranteed $30MM salary for ’24/25. Because the ’23/24 season was over, Paul’s outgoing salary for matching purposes would have been $0, his guarantee for ’24/25, which was (far) less than his total 2023/24 salary.
Sending out Paul without guaranteeing any portion of his salary would have been impractical for the Warriors if they hoped to take any salary back themselves, but they did have the ability to partially or fully guarantee his cap hit in order to make the trade math work. For instance, if Golden State had guaranteed $20MM of Paul’s $30MM salary, $20MM would have become his new outgoing amount for matching purposes.
Finding a sweet spot in that scenario was still a challenge. For instance, it would have worked from the Warriors’ perspective to increase Paul’s partial guarantee to $15MM and use his outgoing salary to acquire a player with a $15MM guaranteed salary. But Golden State’s trade partner would have been sending out a $15MM player and having to account for Paul’s full $30MM incoming salary (not just his partial guarantee), so the math likely wouldn’t have worked for that team. Paul was ultimately waived prior to his guarantee deadline when the Warriors couldn’t find a legal deal they liked.
During the first half of a season, the math on non-guaranteed contracts is a little trickier, since the guaranteed portion of a player’s salary increases for each day he’s on the roster.
For example, Pistons big man Paul Reed is making $7,723,000 this season and that amount is non-guaranteed. However, November 30 (the date this article is being published) is the 40th day of the regular season, meaning Reed has already earned 40/174ths of his salary. That works out to $1,775,402, which is what Reed’s outgoing amount for matching purposes would be if he were traded today.
Reed’s outgoing amount will continue to increase every day until January 10, which is the NBA’s league-wide salary guarantee date. At that point, Reed’s $7,723,000 salary would become fully guaranteed and would be his outgoing amount in any trade for the rest of the regular season.
To paint a complete picture of exactly how these new rules work, let’s assume a free agent signed a two-year, $24MM contract during the summer of 2024. His cap hit in each year is $12MM, but the first season of the contract is partially guaranteed for $3MM, while the second year is fully non-guaranteed. Here’s how it would count, for trade purposes, as outgoing salary:
- From the date of the signing until the one-quarter mark of the 2024/25 season:
- $3MM
- Note: Due to other CBA rules, the player wouldn’t become trade-eligible until at least December 15, 2024 anyway.
- From the one-quarter mark of the 2024/25 regular season until all salaries become guaranteed on January 10, 2025:
- A prorated amount of the salary based on the player’s earnings to date.
- Note: The player would earn 1/174th of his $12MM salary per day; so 60 days into the season, his outgoing salary in a trade would be $4,137,931 (60/174ths of $12MM).
- From January 10, 2025 until the 2025 trade deadline:
- $12MM
- From the day after the team’s 2024/25 season ends until the start of the 2025/26 regular season:
- $0
- From the start of the 2025/26 regular season until salaries become guaranteed on January 10, 2026:
- A prorated amount of salary based on earnings to date.
- Note: The player would once again earn 1/174th of his $12MM salary per day; so 10 days into the season, his outgoing salary in a trade would be $689,655 (10/174ths of $12MM).
- From January 10, 2026 until the 2026 trade deadline:
- $12MM
This change to the NBA’s trade rules hasn’t stopped teams from tacking on non-guaranteed years to the end of certain players’ contracts, since those non-guaranteed salaries still provide flexibility. However, we’re not seeing teams construct contracts with non-guaranteed cap hits solely for trade purposes like we occasionally used to.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
A previous version of this article was published in 2023.
LaMelo Ball To Miss At Least Two Weeks
Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball has been diagnosed with a left calf strain, the team announced today in a press release. Ball’s injury, which he sustained during Wednesday’s game vs. Miami, was initially listed as left calf soreness before he underwent additional evaluation.
According to the Hornets, their leading scorer will be reevaluated two weeks from the date the injury, which would be December 11.
That means that Ball, who missed his first game of the season on Friday vs. New York, will remain sidelined for at least Charlotte’s next five games – against the Hawks, Sixers, Knicks, Cavaliers, and Pacers – and could be out beyond that.
Ball has been one of the NBA’s most dynamic players so far this season, averaging a career-high 31.3 points per game to go along with 6.9 assists and 5.4 rebounds per night. His shooting percentage is a modest 43.0%, he’s averaging 4.5 turnovers per game, and his defense has been subpar, but the Hornets will certainly miss the 23-year-old on the offensive end of the floor.
The Hornets also announced today that guard Tre Mann, who has missed the past four games due to low back soreness, has been diagnosed with disc irritation. Mann will be reevaluated in two weeks, which would be Dec. 14.
Mann, who is in his fourth NBA season, got off to a solid start this fall, with averages of 14.1 PPG, 3.0 APG, and 2.9 RPG, along with a .400 3PT%, in his first 13 games off the bench (24.5 MPG). He’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of the season.
The banged-up Hornets will lean heavily on third-string point guard Vasilije Micic with Ball and Mann unavailable — the Serbian played 31 minutes in Friday’s loss to New York. Nick Smith Jr., KJ Simpson, and Seth Curry are among the other candidates for increased roles in the backcourt.
There is some good news on the injury front for Charlotte. Center Nick Richards, who hasn’t played since November 1 due to a broken rib, has been upgraded to questionable for Saturday’s game vs. Atlanta. It sounds like he’s on track to make his return either tonight or on Tuesday vs. Philadelphia.
Pacific Notes: Kawhi, Lakers, Crowder, Beal, Nurkic
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard is “progressing well” in his recovery from the right knee issue that has sidelined him this fall and postponed his season debut, head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters on Friday (Twitter video link via Law Murray of The Athletic).
“He’s been able to get on the court and do some things on the court, which is good for us,” Lue said. “Just still checking every box, making sure he’s doing the right things and his workouts are really good. Making sure we don’t let it get to the next step until he checks those boxes. Our medical staff has done a great job with that, making sure that we make sure he’s 100% when he comes back.”
Following Paul George‘s departure in free agency and without Leonard available to open the season, the Clippers weren’t viewed as a serious contender in the Western Conference entering this season.
However, they’ve held their own in Kawhi’s absence, posting a 12-9 record through the first quarter of the season, good for eighth in a competitive Western Conference. Lue said on Friday that Leonard is “very excited” about what he’s seen from the team so far and is looking forward to helping out when he returns. Still, there’s no set timeline for when that will happen.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- When they replaced D’Angelo Russell with Cam Reddish in their starting lineup earlier this season, the Lakers were making an effort to solidify their defense. Their most recent lineup tweak – elevating rookie Dalton Knecht and moving Reddish back to the second unit – suggests they’re leaning more into their greatest strength, their offensive firepower, says Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Before being held to a season-low 93 points on Friday against the NBA’s No. 1 defense (Oklahoma City), the Lakers had the league’s fourth-best offensive rating (116.3).
- James Ham of The Kings Beat takes a closer look at what newly added forward Jae Crowder brings to the table for the Kings, pointing out that the 34-year-old is the kind of defensive-minded veteran that head coach Mike Brown likes to rely on. Crowder figures to move from the starting five to the bench once DeMar DeRozan is healthy, but he’ll likely still get regular minutes, Ham writes.
- Suns guard Bradley Beal appears to have avoided a major setback after exiting Wednesday’s game early due to calf and ankle soreness. As Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter links) relays, Beal (left calf injury management) and Jusuf Nurkic (right quad contusion) are both officially listed as questionable for Saturday’s game vs. Golden State, though head coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters on Friday that he viewed them as probable to play.
Lakers’ Jaxson Hayes Out 2-3 Weeks With Ankle Injury
Lakers center Jaxson Hayes has re-sprained his right ankle and is expected to be out for the next two-to-three weeks, according to Shams Charania and Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).
Hayes initially missed six games earlier this month due to a right ankle sprain. He re-aggravated the issue on Tuesday in his second game back and has been inactive for two more contests since then, undergoing an MRI on Friday to assess the severity of the injury, per head coach J.J. Redick (Twitter link via Jovan Buha of The Athletic).
With Christian Wood still recovering from left knee surgery, Christian Koloko being integrated slowly following his year-long absence due to a blood clot issue, and Anthony Davis preferring not to play all of his minutes at center, Hayes has been a regular part of Los Angeles’ rotation when healthy. The big man has averaged 6.4 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game across 11 outings.
Without Hayes available for at least the next couple weeks, the Lakers will lean more on Davis and Koloko for those minutes in the middle and figure to occasionally deploy small-ball lineups that feature a forward like LeBron James or Rui Hachimura as the de facto five.
Hayes also remains under investigation by the NBA, as the league reopened its probe into a 2021 domestic incident after new video surfaced. It’s unclear how long that investigation will take, but if it results in a suspension, Hayes would have to serve it once he’s healthy, not while he’s still injured.
Bulls Notes: Potential Trades, Giddey, Ball, Backcourt
After Jake Fischer reported on Friday that the Bulls are open to discussing the “majority of their roster” in trade talks this season, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (Insider link) confirms that rival teams are viewing Chicago as a probable in-season seller. Those rivals believe the Bulls will likely want to take steps to ensure they finish among the NBA’s bottom 10 teams and hang onto their top-10 protected first-round pick.
Still, there’s some skepticism about just how much value Chicago will be able to extract in return for the players believed to be trade candidates, such as Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic.
“It makes sense for them to trade a veteran, especially if it opens more playing time for rookie (Matas Buzelis)” an executive told ESPN. “But who are they trading that would make a difference? They’ve been trying to move LaVine for more than a year but there’s been no good market. They want to keep (Coby) White, and Vucevic is on the books for $21 million next year.”
Here’s more out of Chicago:
- Rival teams are also monitoring the Bulls’ usage of Josh Giddey, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Insider link), who says opposing scouts and executives have “noted” Giddey’s recent dip in playing time. Giddey, who will be a restricted free agent in 2025, has started all 21 games for the Bulls so far this season, but has played more than 26 minutes just twice in his past nine games, and his on/off-court numbers haven’t been great, as Bontemps notes. Even after Giddey was a +14 in 24 minutes on Friday, the Bulls have a -7.3 net rating in his 565 minutes this season, compared to a -2.9 mark in the 443 minutes he hasn’t played.
- As Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune observes, Giddey was replaced by Lonzo Ball in the Bulls’ closing lineup on Friday vs. Boston for defensive reasons. Giddey didn’t play the final 8:43 of the loss, while Ball surpassed his anticipated 16-minute limit midway through the fourth quarter and logged a season-high 21:40. Head coach Billy Donovan consulted with both Ball and the Bulls’ medical team before making that decision, Poe writes.
- Donovan raved after the game about Ball’s ability to impact a game even when his shot isn’t falling, as Kyle Williams of The Chicago Sun-Times relays. “The steals, the disruption, the hands, knocking down his first couple threes,” Donovan said. “Even if he missed those two shots, he still had a huge impact on the game.” The Bulls’ head coach added that reintegrating Ball into a crowded backcourt rotation hasn’t been an issue, since his players – including Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu – have been positive about the adjustments to their roles. “The unselfishness part of all the guards has been really key,” Donovan said. “I think Lonzo having that stint of 15 or 16 minutes, getting him out there, the team is excited for him. What makes it easier for me is the way those guys have handled it. It’s never been like, ‘Hey, I’m the point guard.’ They’ve all been willing to give up something for the betterment of each other.”
- A win over the Celtics on Friday would’ve secured the Bulls’ spot in the NBA Cup knockout round. Instead, they’ve been eliminated from contention, having finished the group stage with a 2-2 record. The Hawks (3-1) won Chicago’s group (East Group C) and earned a place in the quarterfinals.
Knicks’ Bridges After Fourth-Quarter Benching: I’ve ‘Got To Play Better’
Knicks forward Mikal Bridges‘ early-season struggles continued on Friday as he recorded eight points on 3-of-10 shooting and was a team-worst -14 vs. Charlotte. Although he played 37 minutes, Bridges was benched for most of the fourth quarter — he was pulled with the Knicks down by four points and 8:25 remaining and checked back in for defensive purposes with 13 seconds left and New York up by four.
As Stefan Bondy of The New York Post writes, head coach Tom Thibodeau explained after the comeback victory that he went with Miles McBride over Bridges in crunch time because McBride was “fresh” and “making shots,” adding that the Knicks were “sort of in the mud.” Bridges called it the right decision.
“I got to play better. I’ve been inconsistent,” Bridges said. “I’ve had some games where I’ve played good, some I haven’t. Just got to find a rhythm within the team. That’s pretty much it. Not even 20 games in, still just trying to figure it out. … I had a lot of sloppy turnovers. Couple of times (where the opponent) scored on me getting into the middle. I’ll be better.”
Bridges leads the NBA in minutes played (38.1 MPG) through his first 19 outings, but has seen his production decline across the board. He’s averaging 15.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game and has career-worst shooting percentages of 30.6% on three-pointers and 61.5% on free throws. After getting to the foul line 4.1 times per game over the previous two seasons, he’s averaging just 0.7 attempts per night so far in 2024/25.
The Knicks acquired Bridges from Brooklyn over the summer by giving up a significant package of draft assets that included five first-round picks (four unprotected) and a pick swap. The return on that investment has been modest so far, but Bridges and his teammates remain confident that it’s just a matter of time until he finds his footing in New York.
“I’m not worried about (Bridges),” Knicks forward Josh Hart said after Friday’s game, per Bondy. “I think the media and people are killing him. He’s in a new situation. He’s in a situation where he’s played 19 games in a different role that he’s played the last four years. So it’s our job to get him going.
“And all the other BS about what we gave up, it means nothing. If we win, if we get a championship, ain’t nobody give a damn about how many picks we gave up. We could’ve given up 15 picks, it don’t matter. At the end of the day, we’re trying to win a championship. He’s going to be a key piece of that.”
Hawks Advance To NBA Cup Knockout Round
The Hawks are the first Eastern Conference team to advance to the single-elimination knockout round of the 2024 NBA Cup, according to the league (Twitter link).
Despite posting a 9-11 overall record so far this season and finding themselves in a stacked group alongside the conference’s top two teams (Cleveland and Boston), the Hawks clinched their place atop the East Group C standings with a win over the Cavaliers on Friday night.
Atlanta also beat Boston in its NBA Cup opener on November 12, giving the Hawks the tiebreaker edge over the Celtics after both teams finished with a 3-1 record in group play.
The Celtics still have a chance to join the Hawks in the quarterfinals as the East’s wild card team, but that will depend on the outcome of the Bucks/Pistons and Magic/Knicks games on Tuesday. All four of those teams are 3-0 so far, so the two that win on Tuesday will finish atop their respective groups, while the losers (with the exception of the Knicks) could still earn the wild card berth based on point differential.
The Hawks join the Warriors and Rockets as teams that have secured spots in the NBA Cup knockout round. None of those three clubs made the quarterfinals last year in the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament.
The knockout round will begin on December 10.
Sixers, Pelicans Remain Focused On Making Playoffs
The Sixers will carry a 3-14 record into Saturday’s game in Detroit. The Pelicans are 4-16 after losing in Memphis on Friday. The two teams have combined for just four wins in the past month and – based on historical NBA outcomes – the odds are heavily against either one making the playoffs.
Still, neither the Sixers nor the Pelicans are prepared to throw in the towel in on this season, despite some compelling reasons to consider a pivot.
As Brian Windhorst of ESPN writes in an Insider-only story, the 76ers’ owe their 2025 first-round pick to Oklahoma City but would hang onto it if it lands in the top six. With uncertainty surrounding Joel Embiid‘s health, rival executives are keeping an eye on the situation in Philadelphia to see if bottoming out and trying to hang onto that pick is a route the club contemplates.
However, sources tell ESPN’s Tim Bontemps they don’t expect the Sixers to opt for that path, and certainly not this early in the season. Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report (video link) conveys a similar sentiment, noting that he’s been given no indication a major change of direction has been considered in Philadelphia. The team still hasn’t seen its three stars – Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey – play a full game together.
“You would want at least 25 games before you really judge your team and they haven’t had their top guys together at all,” one rival executive said to Windhorst. “Normally you wouldn’t even have this conversation right now; you’d be focused on saving your season.”
“They have the information on Joel’s health and that will probably inform their moves,” another league exec told ESPN. “There’s a lot of things to consider, including what your owner wants to do.”
As ESPN’s duo and Fischer point out, the underwhelming level of competition in the Eastern Conference is one key reason why the Sixers remain optimistic about their playoff chances. Sub-.500 teams like the Hawks, Nets, Bulls, and Pistons are currently vying for three of the play-in spots in the East and are only a few games ahead of Philadelphia in the standings.
Over in the Western Conference, the Pelicans – another team with major aspirations that has been hit hard by injuries – face a more daunting challenge, given the relative strength of their opponents in the West. As Windhorst writes, the idea of taking a “gap” year – like the 2023/24 Grizzlies and 2019/20 Warriors did when they were decimated by injuries – looks like an increasingly tempting option for the Pelicans, who control their own 2025 first-round pick.
But that’s not a consideration in New Orleans right now, sources tell ESPN. Fischer (video link) has heard the same thing and suggests that, like the Sixers, the Pelicans still plan to be an in-season buyer, not a seller, on the trade market.
It’s possible that stance will change before the February 6 deadline. According to Bontemps, rival teams believe the Pelicans have dug themselves too deep a hole in the season’s first few weeks and won’t be able to make up enough ground to be a playoff team even if and when they get healthy. If New Orleans comes to the same conclusion in a couple months, it would certainly impact how the front office approaches the trade deadline.
Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram, who is in the process of changing agents, remains a player to watch, says Windhorst, citing sources who say the two sides still can’t find common ground on a contract extension. However, finding a suitor willing to give up a desirable package to acquire and extend Ingram – and with whom the forward would be comfortable signing long-term – has been an challenge, Windhorst adds.